In Service

The first of the five Holland type boats built at Barrow was commanded by D. Arnold-Foster. How he came to Barrow to see his new command, and his first experience of diving her is described in Lt Arnold-Forster's own words.

Early in 1915 an experiment took place in the Firth of Forth of a C class boat being towed submerged by a powerful tug. The submarine was towed along at various depths, using a towing slip to enable her, at the opportune moment, to release herself and so make the attack. It was C27 which carried out these experiments which proved quite a success, she and C19 were sent to Aberdeen for actual operations.

On 6 July 1918, a squadron of German seaplanes returning from a daylight raid on Lowestoft and Walmer, caught a Harwich-based British C-class submarine napping on the surface. When the boat was eventually towed into port she was literally a bloody shambles, her captain and nearly half her crew were dead and several others wounded. Yet, even this tragic event had its share of heroism

By the time the Holland's and the A class submarines had come from the berths at Barrow and entered service, the Royal Navy's Submarine Service - every man a volunteer, by the way - had become accustomed to dicing with death.

Prior to the Allied landings in Italy in September, HMS/M Severn had been involved in "cloak & dagger" operations such as the landing of commandoes on the island of Sardinia where they were to destroy the torpedo bomber base at Cagliari (but that's another story). The year was 1943 and the events recounted herein occurred towards the end of that year, following the unconditional surrender of the Italians in September

It cannot be said of many ships of any nationality that they have had two books and a film produced as a result of their efforts. Only one submarine could ever have a signal sent to her reading Hymn No. 30: Verse Five. If you bother to read Hymn 30 in the English Hymnal you will find that verse five reads, "Thus spake the Seraph and, forthwith appeared a shining throng." Clearly we write about the famous HMS Seraph, Barrow-built and still preserved, in part in the United States.

On Monday 14th February 1941, HM Submarine Taku sailed quietly from Holy Loch in Scotland bound for Nova Scotia. She was under escort and commanded by Lieutenant Brown. No-one could possibly have imagined or foreseen what would happen in the days following this departure

No history of submarine warfare in World War Two could be complete without a mention of the "Human Torpedo" or "Chariot". The sheer drama of their story, which could not be revealed at the time, introduced a unique level of selectivity into naval warfare.

At about 0255 we were pooped (being caught in a following sea and pushed forward at speed and a downward motion). We should have been hove to and just about keeping station as we would plough into the oncoming sea with waves reaching 50+ feet.

From the radio room we received a routine signal from the Admiralty to say that the RAF reconnaissance had reported that a Naval force was due to leave Taranto within the next 48 hours. We were instructed to take up station in the centre of the instep which formed the bay south of Taranto. The areas immediately to the south of Utmost would be covered by two more 10th Flotilla boats, HMS Upright, and the last by HMS Upholder.

The name of Her Majesty's Submarine Upholder is inseparably linked to the name of her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander W. D. Wanklyn VC DSO and 2 Bars RN. Upholder, under Wanklyn's command, was perhaps the most successful British submarine of the Second World War Lt. Cdr. Wanklyn was Upholder's captain throughout the whole of her short life, from her completion at Barrow in 1940 until she was lost on April 14, 1942.

Tora! Tora! Tora! (Our surprise attack has been successful). The exultant signal sent by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida to Admiral Chuichi Nagumo told a surprised world that Japan had carried out a devastating attack on Pearl Harbour bringing America into the war, an act which finally sealed the fate of the Axis powers.

The skipper cleared lower deck. 'Right men, this is the position we are in. We have got to get two X Craft plus the Depot Ship through the Canal, negotiating obstacles and hidden dangers to achieve our objective of flying the White Ensign in the centre of Janner Land.'

The Adriatic, radiant in summer, with its many islands strung like jewels along the Dalmatian coast, is a pleasant sea in time of peace. With the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece, it became yet another area of perilous opportunity for the Submarines of the Royal Navy. Among the shoals off Italy's eastern seaboard and the innumerable islands of the Yugoslavian coast, where the enemy played a desperate game of hide and seek with his ore ships bound for Fiume, the Submarines carried out many adventurous patrols.

The 'Orzel' (Eagle) and the 'Wulk' (Wolf) joined the five-nation (Britain, Poland, France, Holland and Norway) underwater fleet based on HMS Ambrose at Dundee's Stannergate from 1939 - 45. Both had escaped from the Baltic despite the German blockade of the Skagerrak and the Kattegat.

This happened onboard the HMS Token tied up to the jetty at HMS Dolphin Submarine Base, we were day running with a destroyer who was training some "ping" ratings. The routine was, after tying up the duty watch would provide a "trot sentry" who's job it was to stand watch on the casing dressed in gaiters and webbing belt and look as if he knew what he was doing

This happened at sea on board HMS Ambush while we were doing work up trials not long after the boat had been handed over from the Dockyard, the Skipper was a bit of a Gunnery addict (I think he liked the smell of cordite) and he had an obsession to be able to go to "Surface Gun Action" faster than it had ever been done before.

After calling at Gibraltar and Malta the next port of call was Port Said were we secured 'stern to' to the Admiralty Jetty. It was here that I heard a pipe that I never heard repeated again in my twenty - four years in 'boats'. It was 'Clear lower Deck of Seamen, Spread awnings"

HMS Onyx was on a visit to Plymouth when the summons came. Her Commanding Officer had just arrived at his home nearby when the telephone rang with orders to take his submarine back to Gosport. He would not be back for another 117 days.

This article is part of a paper 'Submarine Medicine and Submarine Living', presented by the Author at the Symposium of Underwater and Aviation Medical Problems at the RN Air Medical School, in November, 1961.

As unusual places to have lunch go, 100ft beneath the Firth of Clyde is pretty hard to beat. Yet to the officers in the wardroom of the Sovereign it all seems pretty unremarkable. I suppose that when you have breakfasted below the North Atlantic and dined under the Arctic pack ice a calm sea five miles off Largs is nothing to write home about.

To many serving in the fleet it now appeared that anything which was not cost effective or productive was a potential candidate to be retired or sold-off. The exception everyone presumed was, of course, new vessels including the Upholders - but even they tell victim.

The Royal Navy's all nuclear-powered submarine force arrived just a few years after it accepted for service four modern diesel-electric submarines of the UPHOLDER (S40) class (designated SSK for hunter killer). The decision to retire these excellent boats was made for financial reasons following the Cold War. This note reviews the Upholders and their retirement from the fleet.

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In November 1942 His Majesty's Submarine P311 slipped quietly from her moorings in Malta. She was never to return. Now, 73 years after her disappearance en-route to Sardinia, the vessel and her entombed 71 man crew have apparently been found gently resting on the seabed, off the Italian island of Tavolara